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How Twitter reacted to the BBC’s immigration law documentary

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Last night the BBC concluded its three-part documentary about immigration lawyers and their clients, Who Should Get to Stay in the UK?. The series followed a variety of visa applicants and asylum seekers on their journey through the UK’s immigration system, giving the general public an insight into what it’s like to do battle with the Home Office on a daily basis.

Free Movement editor Colin Yeo provided some expert commentary during the series, while contributor Darren Stevenson was featured in episode 1 advising on employing chefs from outside the EU (spoiler: tough luck if your restaurant does takeaways).

The reviews were pretty good. The Guardian said that “the show made points rarely heard in mainstream discussions of immigration” while the more right-leaning Telegraph called it “a sobering insight into [the immigration system’s] endless loopholes and ever-changing rules”.

But what did ordinary viewers think? We’ve no idea, obviously, but here’s what people on Twitter said.

The series showed the Home Office at its, er, finest

The family migration rules came in for particular criticism

For lawyers, it was a chance for some public legal education

Some of the practitioners on the programme came over well

But not all the time

And some people thought that putting immigrants on TV was wrong

To which we can only say, try actually watching it before passing judgement — now on iPlayer.

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CJ McKinney

CJ McKinney is a specialist on immigration law and policy. Formerly the editor of Free Movement, you will find a lot of articles by CJ here on this website! Twitter: @mckinneytweets.

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